BeauSoleil fiddler plans for lessons, history project

Eleven years of touring with BeauSoleil, the two-time, Grammy-winning Cajun band, has brought Mitch Reed from the Andouille Festival in LaPlace to the Galway Arts Festival in Ireland. But in recent years, Reed’s mind has been on his new daughter.

Dorothy, 4, has a severe nut allergy. She could have a life-threatening episode while Reed was playing waltzes and two-steps on the other side of the globe.

“It was just really scary,” said Reed, who played fiddle and bass with BeauSoleil. “This year, she had a couple of reactions.

“I would be on the road and my wife is here by herself. I was just getting more nervous with being away. The other guys wanted to travel more and I wanted to stay home more.”

Those family concerns prompted Reed to officially retire from BeauSoleil. His last gig was in December at the St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square in New Orleans.

Reed broke the news to bandleader Michael Doucet several months ago. The advanced notice allowed Reed to start training his replacement, Chad Huval, a chemist from Breaux Bridge who has also taught Cajun music at the Brazos Huval School of Music and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Reed said his 11 years with BeauSoleil was “like going to school.” But the band’s extensive travel schedule made him miss family and did little to settle his fear of flying.

Reed developed flight anxiety at the age of 13, after his family survived a crash landing in a small plane. In Reed’s second year with BeauSoleil, the band’s flight had to make an emergency landing on a trip from Minneapolis to Houston.

‘We were in this little jet and the whole plane fills up with smoke,” said Reed. “We’re were cruising at 36,000 feet.

“Me and Jimmy (Breaux) were having a gin and tonic. All of a sudden, Jimmy says, ‘Do you smell that?’ You just see the whole cabin fill up with smoke. We had this 63-year-old flight attendant and she was freaking out.

“We had to make an emergency landing in Tulsa. That did not help.”

Reed hopes the only smoke now comes from his career as a music teacher and historian. Besides private lessons at his studio in Scott, he runs the web site, MitchReedMusicLessons.com. Members gain access to more than 200 videos of him breaking down the melodies of Cajun and Creole tunes.

Reed’s YouTube channel offers more techniques and practice tips. His Cajun Band Lab allows amateurs to arrange and learn multiple instruments in a band, which also gets gigs.